A Killer Among Friends

I remember this story when it happened back in the 1980's as the real Jenny and I were born the same year. This story was one of passion yet jealousy was a strong motive. What those two girls did to Jenny was inhumane as far as I was concerned yet it is a good example of how evil human beings can actually be. I always try to see the good in others, however, people can also be evil. Ellen was definately a diabolical psychopath and Karla was more or less a follower or a wimp. To kill the girl, move into her home afterwards....that really sent chills up my spine! Definate wolves in sheeps clothing and a lesson to all that you cannot be too careful when it comes to trusting others.

This is certainly one of the best made for TV crime films I've watched recently.

The storytelling is great and the acting is fantastic especially, from the main leads Patty Duke and Margaret Welsh.

Both ladies did an excellent job portraying their characters. Patty made you feel the hurt, pain and anger that Irene Avila must have gone through when she lost her daughter as her character Joan in the movie. Equally, Margaret did a brilliant job at portraying the envious, manipulative and ultimately murderous Karen Severson as the character Ellen.

I'd definitely recommend watching this film especially, if you like crime films based of true cases.

you can get past Loretta Swit trying to act as an intelligent police detective, with a brunette wig.

Tiffani Amber-Thiessen is the victim and Patty Duke is her over-protective mother. This film is similar to "Bully" in that it shows the inhuman treatment some students project one each other, sometimes for no reason at all, other than jealousy. This film was loosely based on a true story.

The problem with some TV movies like this is they use someone with a too high TV Q/persona (Swit) and it takes away from the substance of the story. 5/10

Ellen Holloway and Carla Lewis killed Jennifer Anne Monroe because they were extremely jealous. Jenny was popular with the boys and Ellen and Carla were not and that was the whole motive for murdering her. They didn't want her around anymore. So they hatched a sophisticated plan to eliminate their competition forever. On the day of the murder, Carla made arrangements to pick up Jenny on Saturday on the pretense of hanging out at the park. Jenny had no idea she was in danger. She and Carla drove into the woods where they met up with Ellen and Kathy. That's when Ellen triggered the rest of the plan staging a fake fight with Carla to throw Jenny off-guard. So Jenny got out of the car to break up the fight but then, Ellen and Carla dropped the charade and turned on Jenny. They harbored a lot of rage for her. So made her go into the trail area leading to the creek. They beat her up. Ellen and Carla were hitting and torturing and cutting Jenny's hair. Kathy Pearl who was brought along for the murder did nothing except run back to the car because she wanted none of the violence. Ellen and Carla intensified their assault. They pushed her down underwater. Ellen held Jenny's feet and Carla held her down until the bubbles stopped and then both of them placed a log on Jenny's head to finish the job. Ellen rushed off to a family gathering inwardly celebrating the elimination of her thinner and prettier rival and Carla went home to call Jenny's mother, Jean pretending to be worried concocting the phony story about the guys in the red monte carlo. Kathy was sworn to secrecy or suffer the consequences.

Another made-for-TV movie inspired by true events, this movie is rerun on lifetime quite often. It's scary to contemplate a person treating another human being like the girls in this film. This movie is better than most "women in jeopardy, inspired by the story of" television flicks of the late 80s/early 90s. Patty Duke is excellent as bereaved mother and Loretta Swit (Hot Lips from M*A*S*H) lends solid support as the investigating detective who tries to keep Duke's character from jeopardizing the case. A very sad disturbing film.